Mortimer Lewis

[1] Lewis arrived in Sydney via Hobart on 1 April 1830 as a free settler aboard the convict ship the Dunvegan Castle, which left Britain on 28 September 1829.

[2] From 1830 Lewis worked in the office of surveyor-general of New South Wales under Sir Thomas Mitchell, and during this time mapped the Great Dividing Range, 130 kilometres west of Sydney.

Lewis was appointed to be the Town Surveyor; in 1835 he was further promoted to the position of Colonial Architect which he held for 14 years during a period of great expansion.

[3] A long series of public works throughout New South Wales followed, including court houses, police stations and government buildings.

[1] In 1835 Governor Bourke made suggestions within reports of that he had finally discovered an architect competent enough to satisfy his needs within the public works sector.

Lewis' discovery to Bourke came at a time when there was desperate need of a Lunatic Asylum which was adequate to deal with problem people within the colony.

St John's Anglican Church of Camden, completed in 1849, is regarded as one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Australia.

Lewis had an affinity with stucco at the time of construction and the bricks of the church were laid with the anticipation of a secondary finish which never occurred for unknown reasons.

[5] Darlinghurst Court was the first purposely designed courthouse to be built in NSW, with the general layout and form referenced for buildings of law in Australia for the next 60 years.

This picturesque style was not commonly found in Australian Colonial architecture and was thought to be a transition, from the simplicity and symmetry of earlier Georgian building types, to a revivalism of the Victorian era.